Washington: California Sen Kamala Harris seized the moment after her performance in Democratic primary debate which provided the first real chance for many of the candidates to shake up the race. The latest Morning Consult survey found Harris increased her standing to 12 per cent in the poll, which was taken after the debate ended. The senator, who challenged former vice president Joe Biden about his past views during the debate, experienced a six-point bump in support following the debate.
Harris’ surge, which also netted her more than $2.5 million in 24 hours following her first presidential primary debate. Harris tweeted that donations came from 63,277 people. “I am so motivated and inspired by all of you,” she wrote. “Now let’s go win this fight.” Twelve per cent of Democratic primary voters said Harris was their first choice for president in the latest Morning Consult survey, which collected 2,407 responses from the moment debate ended. It’s an increase of 6 percentage points from the June 17-23 poll, doubling the senator’s vote share. That vaults her past South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg of Indiana and into a third-place tie with Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
The post-debate survey has a 2-point margin of error, compared with a 1-point margin of error for the pre-debate survey conducted among 16,888 registered voters who indicated they may vote in the Democratic primary or caucus in their state. The survey indicates that Harris’ big night in Miami came largely at the expense of the race’s front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, who faced a withering attack from the 54-year-old senator over his decades-old opposition to federally mandated busing of black students as a means of racially integrating public schools. Biden’s support dropped by 5 points, although he remained the first choice for 33 per cent of Democratic primary voters.
Sen. Bernie Sanders held steady in second at 19 per cent, but the poll found he was the only high-profile candidate to experience a measurable drop in favorability, which fell 7 points from the previous survey, to 67 percentage. While some of the other more well-known candidates such as Biden and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas saw their favorability decline, those dips were inside the poll’s 5-point margin of error on that question.
